One of the best upper body strengthening exercises you need to be adding to your workout protocol is the pull-up. Pull-ups are great for hitting the lats as well as the biceps and if done properly, can even work your core to a small degree as well.

That said, many people do not perform the pull-up correctly and as such, don’t receive the benefits they could be.

Let’s go over a few quick tips that you should know so that you can make sure the next time you do this exercise, you’re doing it to perfection.

Never Swing Yourself Up

The first thing to be careful about is how you lift yourself up to the bar. You want to reach the top of the bar using purely muscular strength. Too many people will actually swing themselves up to the bar, getting momentum involved in the process.

Use momentum and you’ll virtually be taking all the stress off the muscles entirely. This will not bode well for improving your strength level.

Watch Your Hand Placement

Next, be sure that you watch your hand placement. Where you position your hands on the bars will dramatically influence the nature in which you gain strength. Using a wide grip hand placement for example will pinpoint the back to a much greater degree than a very narrow hand placement.

Put the hands close to each other on the bar and you’ll be instead hitting the biceps. You’ll still get some back activation, but it won’t be nearly as great.

Likewise, if you use a reverse grip, you’ll be turning that pull-up into a chin-up and also targeting the biceps to a much larger degree as well.

Keep Your Core Tight

Tight abs is what you want to think of when doing this move. Let your core go lose and it’ll be that much more likely that you let momentum carry you through the exercise.

By squeezing the core, you’ll hit those ab muscles harder, seeing increased strength gains there as well.

Bend At The Knees, Not Hips

Finally, some people may want to shorten the length of their body for comfort while doing this exercise. You can do that by bending at the knees. Whatever you do, do not bend at the hips lifting the knees up.

Doing so will shift your form entirely, causing your body to break and this can take some of the tension off the muscles you are aiming to target.

Simply bend the knees, lifting the heels but keep the rest of the body straight.

If you follow these four tips as you perform your pull-ups, you can feel confident you’re performing them correctly.